American Trust Takes $1.08 Million Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

American Trust purchased a new stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,234 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,082,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Sachetta LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Northwest Bank & Trust Co purchased a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in Progressive by 143.6% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 190 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO purchased a new stake in Progressive during the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive during the first quarter valued at $35,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Progressive from $256.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Progressive from $276.00 to $293.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Progressive from $216.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Progressive from $210.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.94.

Progressive Price Performance

NYSE PGR traded up $1.66 during trading on Friday, hitting $216.94. 1,769,793 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,572,837. The company has a market capitalization of $127.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.35. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $211.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $202.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $124.06 and a 12-month high of $229.00.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.61. The business had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.54 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 10.17%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 12.02 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 22,708 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total value of $4,859,739.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 302,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,836,041.58. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 22,708 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total value of $4,859,739.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 302,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,836,041.58. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 650 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.11, for a total value of $135,271.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $828,485.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 108,168 shares of company stock worth $22,937,984 in the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Progressive

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.